Fire

I went out today to attempt the creation of a fire. The weather is windy and very heavy rain. Here is what I think it takes to light a fire in these conditions with a knife and a basic lighter.

1. Prepare by gathering tinder on the way to the fire site. Birch bark, pine resin etc and loads of it. Tuck it somewhere warm and dry, like against your chest, and it should dry out enough to light.
2. Choose a sheltered spot, make it more sheltered. Build a little shelter over your fire area.
3. Find some wrist thick or thicker standing deadwood that is as dry as possible and split it under shelter. Keep it as dry as possible. Don't leave it on the ground to get wet. Don't handle it with soaking hands etc.
4. Build a platform for the fire.
5. Make feather sticks. As many as you can. As dry as possible. Ash and pine work well for me.
6. Gather a huge bundle of kindling, mix in a few bits of tinder and red/dead pine needles to extend the fire and give it a boost as it grows.
7. Place a lot of tinder on the platform which should not be getting any drips.
8. Place your driest kindling on top in a pyramid.
9. Get everything ready.
10. Light tinder and as it grows and drys damp material keep adding slowly. Place other tinder nearby to dry with fires heat.
11. Keep feeding the fire until it gets good and hot.
12. Congrats you have fire hopefully.

My lighter was wet and wouldn't work so I dried it out in my armpit for half an hour and it worked, phew.

Plus put your phone in a plastic bag even if you have a ,dry pocket. My phone got soaked. Lesson learned.

I managed to get a good blaze going but it took a lot longer than a normal fire and there was lots of smoke. I dried out my soaked trousers and phone.

This is a preperation thing. Allways go the extra mile or u will fail, there is no doubt. Gather the tinder and kindling you need and then double it or tripple it!!

Cheers
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device